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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25952218">Differences Make People Interesting</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rotten_goddess/pseuds/rotten_goddess'>rotten_goddess</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>UshiSakuWeek2020 [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Baby Sitter Sakusa Kiyoomi, Child Care AU, Gen, Grade schooler Ushijima Wakatoshi, Implied Bullying, Other Haikyuu characters mentioned as background characters, Platonic Relationships, past bullying</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 07:48:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,478</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25952218</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rotten_goddess/pseuds/rotten_goddess</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Wakatoshi-kun was a kid too old to be left on the Day Care Center but Kiyoomi couldn’t ask the other sitters why he was there, so he asked the quiet boy himself when he had the chance one day, and learned more than the reason why.</p><p>—<br/>Day 6 of #UshiSakuWeek</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>UshiSakuWeek2020 [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1875031</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>UshiSakuWeek 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Differences Make People Interesting</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Yay, almost there! Day 6 of #UshiSakuWeek (2 days late again huhu) and I chose Favorite Feature as prompt. This is something light and pretty different to my other fics and I’m not sure if the prompt was even incorporated properly but whatever! Baby Waka and Baby Satori are lovely kids so don’t bully them!!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>With little Tobio finally calming down in his arms (he cried for what felt like five minutes straight after tripping and spilling his bottle of milk), Kiyoomi decided to finally lay the boy down the soft cushions of the empty futon.</p><p>He found it amazing how the other kids were able to take their naps when Tobio’s ear-piercing wail filled the four corners of the little day care center.</p><p>The other sitters, Koushi and Morisuke, had gone out to buy their bentos at a nearby convenience store, leaving Kiyoomi behind to look after the sleeping children. </p><p>It was only a little over one o’clock, and Kiyoomi was sure he used up all the energy he got from his early lunch battling against the little arms Tobio refused to raise properly as he cried over his milk. The boy was drenched, screaming who-knows-what in his baby language, because he’d rather stop Wakatoshi-kun from wiping the mess off the floor than help the new sitter change his clothes. </p><p>Speaking of Wakatoshi-kun...</p><p>The boy, around the age of seven or eight if Kiyoomi estimated it right, was back to kneeling in front on a table, a pencil in his cute little hand, drawing a large circle in the middle of his open notebook. Kiyoomi watched him turn the circle into a smiley, before adding sticks around it to make for hands and limbs.</p><p>“Oh, if it isn’t Vabo-chan!” Kiyoomi said, kneeling on the opposite side of the table to observe the drawing carefully. “You like volleyball?”</p><p>Wakatoshi looked at him in a way that made Kiyoomi think he grew mushrooms in his face.</p><p>Wakatoshi was a quiet boy, looking a little out of place if not more in the group of toddlers running all over the place unless they were eating or sleeping. The other sitters don’t pay him much attention either, having their hands full with the chaotic kids.</p><p>Maybe Wakatoshi was by-passed by his sudden presence, maybe he was trying to build a quiet world of his own around him. Maybe it was why Kiyoomi somehow saw himself in the young boy, aloof and alone by choice. Yet something in those brown eyes seemed to tell him otherwise. </p><p>“Anything wrong, Wakatoshi-kun?” he asked, all smiles at the kid, head propped over the palms of his closed hands, his elbows on the table. </p><p>The boy in question shook his head and continued drawing, adding chubby little fingers on one of the hands. His strokes were light and delicate, and Kiyoomi wondered how his penmanship looked at his very young age. </p><p>“Do you not go to school, Wakatoshi-kun?” He finally asked, trying to mask his curiosity with a friendly smile, careful not to offend the boy or make him feel left out with other kids his age. He wasn’t sure if it was something he shouldn’t put his nose to either, but despite being in his first job for only three days, he couldn’t help but be concerned.</p><p>“I used to, but mom enrolled me to home study program this year,” Wakatoshi answered casually, flipping the page when he was happy with his art. He started making another big circle, and Kiyoomi wondered how many of the volleyball mascot had he done in that notebook. “I have a tutor coming over in the afternoon to help me with the modules. I’m only staying here in the mornings because mom didn’t want to leave me home alone.”</p><p>Kiyoomi nodded absently, finding his fingers drawing circles on the littered table. He let his eyes wander over the random lines of bright colors the other kids drew on white paper sheets. Crayons and pencils alike rolled all over the room, one which made little Tobio trip earlier. </p><p>“The other kids think I’m weird for writing with my left hand—” Wakatoshi continued, surprising Kiyoomi with an answer to his unvoiced question—“but my father didn’t want me to change it.” </p><p>“Well, left handers are rare so they are hard to compete with in volleyball,” Kiyoomi commented, making little spiking gestures in the air with his left hand. “They give the ball a spin different from right handers, so they are harder to receive.” He then made a receiving gesture.</p><p>“Do you like volleyball, too, Kiyoomi-san?” </p><p>Kiyoomi heard interest in his voice for the first time, his eyes sparkling like a well-polished back of a spoon (Kiyoomi knew it because polishing silverwares was a favorite pasttime of his).</p><p>“I used to play in high school. It is best played with your friends—” <em>oh.</em></p><p>Did the boy even have friends? But volleyball’s a group sports, so maybe he had at least enough to do 3-on3 matches with?</p><p>Wakatoshi nodded, as if in understanding, the sparkles gone from his eyes when he went back to his artwork and Kiyoomi fell silent with undeserved guilt. </p><p>“I only have one friend though. Satori also liked volleyball, but with only the two of us, we can only do passing.” Wakatoshi paused, silence lingering longer than Kiyoomi would want them to, growing more curious at the words that hang on the boy’s parted lips. “But he stopped talking to me, too.”</p><p>“Why so?” Kiyoomi asked, encouraging the boy to continue with the story. Being bullied must be hard for him, but growing up alone wouldn’t be good for him either, although he wasn’t one to talk.</p><p>Kiyoomi didn’t have much friends growing up, preferring to be left alone than play with kids his age other than his cousin.</p><p>“Satori-kun didn’t like it when he learned I stopped attending regular school. I’m his only friend, too, because the others keep making fun of his haircut. But if maybe if he had his bangs cut off then he would make new friends. And he’s a good kid, too. Unlike me.”</p><p>Kiyoomi chuckled, causing Wakatoshi to raise his head again, tilting it to show his confusion.</p><p>“But <em>you</em> are a good kid, too, Wakatoshi-kun.” He patted the boy’s head, enjoying the softness of hair under his palm. </p><p>“But no one would want to be friends with me,” came his argument, tone hinting his sadness.</p><p>Kiyoomi hummed, turning his head back to the spread out futons.</p><p>Tobio sucked his thumb in his sleep, Shoyo’s mouth was open, tiny hands on either side of his fluffy head. Yachi was sleeping peacefully like a fetus, while Kenma and Tetsuro had rolled to the edges of the futon, cheeks squishy against the sheets, the bulk of their diapers made the back of their pants look comically big. </p><p>“Aren’t the other kids here your friends? They like gathering around you and I know you teach them how to draw Vabo-chan. Or do you treat them more as younger brothers?”</p><p>Wakatoshi made a sound like an undecided noise. His cute little pout hinted his inner battle. </p><p>“Satori-kun would understand and forgive you one day, for sure. I’m also sure he’d be happy for you if you made more friends, which I’m certain you’d do because, as I have said, you are a good boy.”</p><p>“Even if I don’t write with my right hand?”</p><p>Kiyoomi nodded. “Everyone is different. You’re still young, so as the other kids in your school, so they don’t understand that yet. But you all will when you grow up. I think differences make people interesting.” He flashed him a smile.</p><p>“Did you have lots of friends when you were younger, Kiyoomi-san?”</p><p>It was Kiyoomi’s turn to tilt his head, not sure how to answer. He was more the kid who refused to be friends with others than the one being refused to, and the story might not sound good for someone like Wakatoshi. </p><p>“Do I look like I made lots of friends when I was younger?” he asked instead, trying to play the conversation.</p><p>Wakatoshi shrugged his little shoulders, looking him straight in the eyes until Kiyoomi felt conscious. </p><p>“You’re different, too. You have those dots in your head,” the boy finally answered, making Kiyoomi realize Wakatoshi wasn’t looking at his eyes but his moles. </p><p>Kiyoomi raised a hand, feeling the top of his right brow with the tip of his fingers. Not like anyone ever noticed them being there aside from him when he was in front of a mirror. Moles, to him, were as natural as having scars on one’s knee as a kid. “Do they look weird on me?”</p><p>Wakatoshi shook his head. “I like them.”</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“I like them,” the boy repeated and Kiyoomi was certain Wakatoshi was looking at his eyes this time.</p><p>“They look good over your eyes. I think they are interesting. They make you look special.”</p><p>Kiyoomi smiled at him softly. No one had ever said that about his moles before, and the innocence in the child’s voice made his heart flutter. He moved his hand to pat the boy’s head again.</p><p>“You really are a good boy, Wakatoshi-kun.”</p><p> </p>
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